When I was a kid I developed a fascination with living to be 100 years old. Stories of centenarians in magazines and on the news always got my attention and the idea of living a very long life appealed to me. Fast forward to my early thirties when an adventurous lifestyle was placing me in dangerous situations and people I knew were dying in the mountains pursuing their dreams. It's quite sobering to face the reality that what one enjoys doing for recreation can put a permanent end to the fun - all fun.
It was at this time when I realized that my interest in centenarians might actually hold the key to becoming one. What if I could keep this lifetime goal right in the front of my mind when I'm making decisions in challenging situations? A filter pack, if you will, through which I could put these scenarios. The filter sections could represent different parts of life, skills for survival, reminders about my responsibilities to others, etc. I pictured myself dropping, say, the desire to ski a certain avalanche-prone backcountry slope into the 100-Year Plan funnel. I'd hold the funnel up above my head and see if anything made it through the filters. If it trickled out the bottom of the funnel I'd go for it. It's really just a mental trick - a way of making me stop and assess the situation logically in the bright light of my future. It was a way to the calm eye of the testosterone storm for long enough to put the other important things in life into perspective and be given equal weight in the decision-making.
As I write this I'm about to turn 63. That's 63% of the way to the goal for those of you keeping score at home. I'm still a young man and I have many, many adventures ahead of me. In the thirty or so years I've been applying the 100-Year Plan, I've used it to make many decisions, big and small. In short, it's worked and worked well. An example comes from the time my friends invited me to join them in an attempt to climb Manaslu, the eighth highest peak in the world. I had been thinking about what I would do if an opportunity to climb one of these giants presented itself. By the time it did I had gotten pretty good at pulling out The Plan and using it. I turned them down after nothing came out the bottom of the funnel. My young son, my family's reliance on me, my love of other aspects of life, other skills I was building - all of these were layers of the filter-funnel. My friends made the summit and came back home. They succeeded and used their skills to climb one of the world's great mountains. I was impressed and happy for them. But something I didn't feel (and still don't) was regret and I believe the reason is that I went through the process up front. I used the 100-Year Plan to make the right decision and after that I was at peace with it.
Today the 100-Year Plan is still in use. I've shared it with friends, some of whom have put it to very good use out on the edge of the possible. That it is transferable to others is perhaps the best thing of all. Maybe, just maybe, a friend will come home from a trip because The Plan helped them remember the big picture.
17 November 2022 - Bainbridge Island, WA
100-Year Plan Corollary #1
Over the years of applying the 100-Year Plan, I’ve stumbled upon a few other tools that have helped me work through the aging process. This particular corollary is pretty simple. It states that every ten years we get another body in which to live. This body is different than the previous decade’s version in some important ways - and every person experiences a different set of changes.
For me, the best test of corollary #1 has been playing the game of ultimate, the flying disc field sport. I started playing ultimate in 1975 when I was in my teens. I played in every decade of life up until my mid-fifties. So I played in my teens, twenties, thirties, forties and fifties. Of course, the game didn’t change much during those years, but I sure did. In that time I went from being referred to as “the kid” to being identified as “the old guy.” During the first two decades I was usually one of the fastest people on the field. In the last decade I was one of the slowest. Also in my early years, I would twist an ankle or tweak a hamstring and by the next weekend I was all mended and ready to go at full speed again. Not so much in my later years. These changes are, of course, inevitable. If we want to continue doing the athletic and adventurous things we love, we need to acknowledge these things and make changes that allow us to adapt and continue. That’s where corollary #1 comes in handy. Like the 100-Year Plan, it’s just a device for framing up reality. Every decade - 20s, 30s, etc.- it’s a good idea to look in the mirror (actually and figuratively) and identify how we’ve changed and what we should do to keep these changes from breaking us in big and small ways. Every activity I’m involved in, from mountain biking to skiing to paddling, hiking and climbing present physical and mental challenges that I need to respond to differently than in previous decades.
So that’s it, the 100-Year Plan corollary #1. It’s working for me so far. More tests will be run - if I’m fortunate to make it to another decade marker.
25 September 2023 - Bainbridge Island, WA
100-Year Plan Corollary #2 (aka Kate’s Corollary)
My wonderful life partner, Kate Garfield, has recently made me aware of another useful tool in the 100-Year Plan toolbox. This one states that we can choose when we wake up in the morning to focus on the body parts that don’t hurt, rather than fixating on the parts that do. When Kate brought this up it struck me as very powerful positivity in action. It’s easy to turn our attention to the muscles and connective tissues that are speaking to us in a very loud voice, but that’s not a productive path. I’m finding it quite useful to consider the pain-free parts - it makes me more positive right out of the gate each day!
18 November 2023, Bainbridge Island, WA